Nestlé Launches Vegan Gourmet Egg & Shrimp Called ‘vEGGie’ & ‘Vrimp’
Image via Nestlé
Eventually, vegans will tire of faux chicken nuggets and dream of fancier foods. To this group, Nestlé says you can have your cake (with vEGGie in the batter) and eat it too.
In a bid to appeal to healthier diets and protect the planet, the multinational food conglomerate has announced some bizarrely-named plant-based alternatives to shrimp and eggs: ‘Vrimp’ and ‘vEGGie’. New to its Garden Gourmet line, the products aim to “really deliver on great taste, texture and nutrition” for all meals of the day, describes Wayne England, head of Nestlé’s food business. They were developed using proprietary technology from Nestlé Research in Switzerland and Nestlé’s R&D Center in Germany.
The vEGGie egg is made up of soy protein and omega-3 fatty acids, and has earned a Nutri-Score A in Europe. Apart from scrambling like a real egg, Nestlé says vEGGie can even stand in for chicken’s eggs in pancakes and baked goods like cookies and cakes.
Image via Nestlé
Then there’s Vrimp, invented following the success of something called… ‘Vuna’. The shrimp lookalike and taste-alike gets its flavor and nutrition from seaweed and peas, and its “succulent shrimp”-like crunch from konjac root. The company details that this seafood alternative works beautifully in salads, poke bowls, stir-fried dishes, pasta, and on pizzas.
Image via Nestlé
Nestlé explains that with substitutes like Vrimp and Vuna, the overfishing problem could be kept at a minimum, ultimately “[protecting] the biodiversity of our oceans.”
For now, Vrimp and VEGGie will be trialed in select stores across Switzerland and Germany. Vrimp tacos, anyone?
Image via Nestlé
Image via Nestlé
[via Boing Boing, images via Nestlé]
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